Barbara Radice (born 29 November 1943) is an Italian design critic, writer, and editor.

Early life and education

Barbara Radice was born in

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, Italy, and graduated from the

Catholic University of Milan The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1968.

Career

Radice is one of the seven founding members of the

Memphis Group The Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, was an Italian design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsass. It was active from 1980 to 1987. The group designed postmodern furniture, lighting, fabrics, carpets, ceramics, glass and me ...

, and the only non-architect among them. The Italian

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

design collective was formed during a gathering at her home in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in December 1980. In her critical writing, Radice defined the themes and theories of this new aesthetic movement, and would become the group's de facto historian and chronicler. In 1984 she published ''Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design'', a manifesto for the group's design philosophy. In it she focused on the broad output of the group's designers, from laminates and glass designs by

Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass (; 14 September 1917 – 31 December 2007) was an Italian architect and product designer. He was known for his designs of furniture, jewelry, glass, lighting, homeware and office supplies. He also worked on numerous buildings an ...

to patterned fabrics by

Nathalie du Pasquier Nathalie Du Pasquier (born 1957) is a Milan-based artist and designer mostly known for her work as a founding member of the Memphis Group. Her early body of work includes furniture, textiles, clothing designs and jewelry in addition to iconic w ...

and ceramics by

Matteo Thun Matteo Thun (full name Mathäus Antonius Maria Graf von Thun and Hohenstein, 17 June 1952 Bolzano, Italy) is an Italian architect and designer. Early life Mathäus Antonius Maria Graf von Thun und Hohenstein was born in Bolzano in 1952. He was t ...

. Radice served as editor of the design and architecture magazine Terrazzo (published from 1988 to 1997) which she began in collaboration with Ettore Sottsass. The publication's name has a double meaning: it is both an Italian word meaning "place of encounter" and a reference to the popular style of flooring known by that name. Radice is also Sottsass's biographer and widow, and is involved in preserving his legacy and that of the Memphis Group. She curated the 2017 exhibit "Ettore Sottsass – There Is a Planet" for the 2017

Milan Triennial The ''Milan Triennial'' (Triennale di Milano) is an art and design exhibition that takes place every three years at the Triennale di Milano Museum in Milan, Italy. History The exhibition was originally established in 1923 as a biennial architect ...

. In 2018, Radice came into conflict with the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam over a retrospective of Sottsass's work. The museum claimed that the estate was too controlling and released a statement describing being given "too little scope for interpretations we wished to explore in the presentation." Radice and the estate's gallery owner Ernest Mourmans turned the blame on the institution, suggesting that the curatorial team was "adversarial", and refused to loan objects for the show. The differences could not be resolved and the show was ultimately cancelled.

Publications

*''Elogio del banale, Torino.'' Studio forma, Torino & Alchymia, Milano, 1980. *''Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design.'' Rizzoli, 1984 *''Jewelry By Architects.'' Electa, Milan, 1987. *''Ettore Sottsass: A Critical Biography'', Thames & Hudson. 1993 *''Ettore Sottsass: Scritti''. Neri Pozza Editore, Milan, 2002 (edited with M. Carboni) *''Metafore''. Skirà Editore, Milan, 2002 (edited with M. Carboni) *''Memphis: The New International Style''. Mondadori Electa, Milan, 2008. *''Ettore Sottsass: There is a Planet''. Catalogue for exhibition at Triennale Design Museum, Electa, 2016

Personal life

Barbara Radice was married to fellow Memphis member and designer Ettore Sottsass until his death in 2007. The couple met in 1976 at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radice, Barbara 1943 births Living people People from Como Italian women writers Italian writers Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore alumni